Lunatic Asylum at Tauton

Tauton State Hospital

This state hospital in Massachusetts formerly known as the State Lunatic Asylum at Tauton was built in 1854, the second state asylum in the state built just to receive the overflow from the only other state asylum. This asylum was rumored to have had the infamous Lizzie Borden as a guest but no clear records of this have ever been found. Today this building no longer stands as it has been slowly decaying since the last patient was taken away in 1975, the great dome over the administration area collapsed in 1999 and in 2006 a mysterious fire began in the middle of the complex leveling a huge portion of the building leaving only the wings of the building standing. In 2009 the remainder of the building was tore down.

So why you ask am I writing this when the buildings no longer exist, well the energy that was produced by the unspeakable horrors that went on in those buildings still lingers engulfing those brave or perhaps stupid enough to set foot on the land. The State Lunatic Asylum at Tauton was once referred to as a concentration camp for the mentally disturbed. Disturbing talk of what happened within the walls of what was supposed to be a state-of-the-art facility for its day turned out to be nothing but a chamber of horrors where human life was sacrificed out of curiosity and just plain cruelness.

Soon after the buildings completion it is believed that the torture of the patients began, shock treatments and ice baths being among the first of the experiments that began on the grounds. Next it seemed the doctors and other staff wanted to see how long the human body could sustain itself and a special “cage” as it were was built outside one of the wings of the building. When the cool weather would come the experiments began in earnest, giving a patient an ice bath then taking them outside to this cage and locking them inside to see if they would last the night.

If the patient was lucky enough not to die overnight then they were taken back inside the building where they were tortured, a favorite form of torture seems to have been the removal of limbs. But the removal was not enough for some of the staff at this asylum, no they would then take these severed limbs and attach them to other persons to see if this new appendage would be able to function. Another torture used to study the human capacity for pain, and the doctors wanted a new way in which to torture their patients, was boiling. Of course several patients were to perish during this process as getting just the right temperature to burn without killing takes some time to perfect, those unfortunate enough to live through the experiment were then studied, as to how the boiling had affected their blood, internal organs and skin. No treatment was ever given to these burned patients and many would die due to infection and neglect.

Screams are reported to be heard anytime you enter the grounds, day or night. It is also said that many tried to escape the facility as back then a woman could be put into such a place if she was depressed or even if her husband decided he didn’t want her around anymore. It is said that those who tried to escape never made it that far and upon return to the facility they were never to be seen again. There have been many reports of running apparitions seen fleeing across the grounds, jumping an imaginary fence, and skittering into the night. Imagine the number of patients that were tortured here, we can only hope that these poor tortured souls are not still wandering the long gone corridors of this asylum and that the screams that are heard are the residual effects laid into the land from this horrible time in history.

More Haunted Locations....

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JesadaB

5 years agofrom Home!

Hey AlexK, well I do know that it is much more regulated now then it used to be, at least in the U.S. So I hope that the tortures done to these poor souls are not visited on anyone in this day and age.

AlexK2009

5 years agofrom Edinburgh, Scotland

The way the differently same used to be treated is horrible. I am not sure we have stopped this completely, but it is at least reduced.

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